Owls basketball: Better late than never

We waited out a YouTube clip capturing his dunking repertoire, a contentious relationship with his former coach, and a hyperextended knee that slowed his senior season just as it got under way. On Saturday, even if for just one afternoon, Aleks Perka made the wait worth it. His second career double-double (with career highs of 21 points and 11 boards) validated our belief in his skills.

Will AP close his final season on South Main with several more exceptional performances before riding off to a professional career in Europe? Who knows, but against East Carolina, AP was the interior force the Owls required to snap their four-game skid. He aggressively called for the ball, then did something positive when his teammates obliged his requests. This time AP didn’t give us just a flash, but rather a consistent 33-minute showcase of his burgeoning talent.

“Aleks is playing with probably the most confidence I’ve seen him play with since he’s been here,” classmate Rodney Foster said. “I don’t think Aleks knows how talented he is. He went 10-for-15 from the field, and that’s purely on him doing simple things. Once he gets to realize how much talent he has, he could easily have 20 and 10 every game.”

Foster (12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) returned from a jammed right foot and commanded respect from start to finish, and Connor Frizzelle (12 points, 5 assists) knocked down a handful of jumpers when the Owls desperately needed them. Trey Stanton chipped in a career-best 10 rebounds and two huge blocked shots (ah, if only he were in during the waning moments against Tulane), and Cliff Ghoram brought his lunch bucket (15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) — per usual.

But this was about AP finally realizing his potential. And he didn’t dunk once.

It was nice to see Perka and the rest of the team show some muscle inside today. For a while i’d thought that the whole team had forgotten that you could pull up for a mid-range jumper or put a lay-up in under pressure.

And I’ve heard the rumblings that Cousins was coming to visit Rice after his decommit to UAB. Was he here for the ECU game? Do you think that we actually stand a chance on winning the recruiting battle for a top-ranked prospect?

[I’ll pass judgment on the Owls’ chances when I learn more about the situation. No, Cousins was not at the House of Tudor on Saturday. – MK]

MK … I know you’ve got your ear pressed against Braun’s office wall. Is that where the reference to Cousins originates? The kid’s website shows UAB ad nauseum. I saw no Rice references in scouting report sites. Shame on you for dangling that carrot in front of us

[He’s wide open with regards to recruiting. I’ll leave it at that for now. – MK]

Saturday’s game showed enouraging improvement at getting the ball inside, partly due as you said to Perka demanding the ball. There’s still a lot of improvement needed in that area, however.

Task one is to get Stanton to do as Perka did on Saturday. He has the size, shooting touch and coordination to be a scoring force inside if he develops the desire. I recall an instance yesterday when he failed to make himself available as a guard drove into the lane, instead settling for being a bystander. He did a great job on the boards yesterday, however, and perhaps a tendency to defer to Perka is understandable.

Task two is for the guards, who did do a much better job than previously at making the entry passes, to understand the importance of getting the ball into the post even when it is manned by less experienced players like Braimoh and Herndon. Although they are not (yet?) offensive forces, failure to make an available entry pass leads over time to a failure on the part of post players to continue to work hard for position, which in turn makes it easy for the defense to remain focused on shutting down open shots by the guards.

I think that game films would show that the scoring dry spells that have plagued the Owls, including one in the second half yesterday, are strongly correlated with failure to get the ball inside.

While Kuipers’ injury clearly leaves the Owls thin inside, I still question the wisdom of often having on the floor a line-up that has Ghoram as the second tallest player.

Glad to see seniors like Perka and Foster playing their best ball of their careers now to hopefully salvage the season somewhat. The ECU win might’ve been our best win in years, sadly.

Could it be that the #2 basketball prospect in all the land is considering Rice? What is Braun trying to do? Pack the House of Tudor every night? Lets hope there’s something to it. Sometimes these elite players that probably go NBA after only 1-2 years, like a smaller school where they feel comfortable with the coach and where they will definitely be “The Man” (Larry Hughes comes to mind). For Rice to even be mentioned or listed would be something.

Well, I’m in the “no way in heck he comes here” boat on Cousins, but he seemed to have a good relationship with Pop Jackson when they were both at UAB. Maybe Jackson can convince him to one and done with the Owls?